Rebel Yell, The
Love & War
After years of composing such hits as Erykah Badu’s “Love Of My Life” and providing the keys accompaniment to The Roots, Grammy award winning songwriter/producer James Poyser offers a new rendering, this time in the form of a group. The Rebel Yell is Poyser plus producer Khari Ferrari Mateen, plus vocalist SupaStar. The style is not the traditional R&B you’d expect. Rather, their debut rebels against this expectation. Yelling the sounds and messages of “The Revolution,” “Save The World,” and “Heartbreak” all with well thought out and tightly knitted lyrics over 80’s pop, rock, psychedelic, house, rap, and soul music, Love & War clearly achieves their misfit objective.
The tunes remind you of the risk that black artists like Prince and Living Colour use to take: out of the box, rugged yet smooth, upbeat, and strangely addictive. However, one wonders what could of been if this threesome would have rebelled not just against radio R&B, but against what is becoming typical throwback music in general.
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